In his 2005 Stanford commencement lecture, Apple Computer founder and college dropout Steve Jobs credited a Reed College calligraphy class for his focus on choosing quality typefaces for the Macintosh.
He seems to do alright.
I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
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Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#12I really look forward to a world filled with only engineering majors -- sounds exciting.
I am guessing this is sarcasm but the mind boggles at how much progress could be made if more people went into science and engineering majors. Not just due to their increased direct contributions, but also the effect it would have on political discourse and culture. We could do a lot worse.
Why do people assume that making more engineering majors = making more people analytical and reasonable? A whole bunch of things:
- doing engineering isn't magically going to change your thought process. Some people don't think the same way as others - they probably wouldn't enjoy engineering if they did it (I don't doubt they could apply themselves to get a degree). You think if Obama did a BEng the world would immediately be black and white and he could just make the "right" decisions?
- engineers aren't the only people who contribute to society, by a long shot. Besides a world with movies, graphic art or music, an all-engineer world would lack all the scholarly products of the modern world. "Guns, Germs and Steel" is an awesome book which is very accessible, and engineers seem to love it. But it was written by a biologist, on the backs of 100s of academics who did the original research he cites. A work like that couldn't exist without "the arts"
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#13I'd have to agree on the gender role issue. I'm a father of two daughters and want them to be whatever they want to be. I don't agree with the statement that everyone needs to learn how to code, or the fact that language and art are a waste of time. If everyone knew and did the same things, the world would kinda suck (and finding a good paying job would be impossible.)
> I don't agree with the statement that[...]language and art are a waste of time I agree with you, they're excellent hobbies.
I'd go with "foundational parts of the human experience," but feel free to dismiss them as "hobbies," I guess.
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#14The liberal arts are invaluable as a means of cultivating the potential within oneself.
That said, you need food to feed a garden while it is being cultivated, and nothing puts bread on the table quite as robustly as engineering degrees.
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#15In his 2005 Stanford commencement lecture, Apple Computer founder and college dropout Steve Jobs credited a Reed College calligraphy class for his focus on choosing quality typefaces for the Macintosh. He seems to do alright.
> He seems to do alright.
Did, RIP Jobs. Also he was Steve Jobs, who created multiple multi-billion dollar companies, he would have been a success had he taken a burger flipping class.
There was only one Steve Jobs.
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#16In his 2005 Stanford commencement lecture, Apple Computer founder and college dropout Steve Jobs credited a Reed College calligraphy class for his focus on choosing quality typefaces for the Macintosh. He seems to do alright.
Those facts are indeed correlated, but there's no evidence of causation.
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#17Everyone, successful or not (however you choose to define that), walks a different path in life to get where they are. Our experiences in total shape the persons that we are, the way we approach problems, the way we create, and the way we interact with others. The author, with the benefit of knowing where she is, is reflecting on the other roads - some perhaps shorter, faster - she could have taken to get there.
What I take away from her post is that if you are ambitious in your career (like she seems to be), it is important to understand the realities of your major / concentration. For those that have passions in humanities and other non-"hard" majors, pursue your dream as long as you can accept the statistical likelihoods for your career post-graduation.
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#18In his 2005 Stanford commencement lecture, Apple Computer founder and college dropout Steve Jobs credited a Reed College calligraphy class for his focus on choosing quality typefaces for the Macintosh. He seems to do alright.
He might indeed be doing alright if he had taken a little more interest in science.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8841347/Steve-Jo...
I wonder how many years of his life that wasted?
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am guessing this is sarcasm but the mind boggles at how much progress could be made if more people went into science and engineering majors. Not just due to their increased direct contributions, but also the effect it would have on political discourse and culture. We could do a lot worse.
Why do people assume that making more engineering majors = making more people analytical and reasonable? A whole bunch of things: - doing engineering isn't magically going to change your thought process. Some people don't think the same way as others - they probably wouldn't enjoy engineering if they did it (I don't doubt they could apply themselves to get a degree). You think if Obama did a BEng the world would imme…
I'm pretty sure biology falls within the S in STEM. "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is a pop-science book, surely you could have used a more literary example to represent "the arts."
Re: I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake
#20My friend has this exact same degree (spanish and french), she wandered off to get a masters in International Development and then went on to create various programs around north-east Africa and Central America. Who says it's a worthless degree? It just sounds like this author didn't manage to do anything with it. Also good writing (taught by these 'useless' BA degrees) is a damned handy thing to have. I know people…
Your friend's career path is not that usual. in practice, most people with this sort of degree will not get the opportunity to make much use of it in the future. None of your listed jobs specifically require a humanities degree, nor is it true that you need to study such a degree to develop good writing skills.